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Isn't this partly because SV is most interested in developing social apps for hip teenagers? It's probably difficult for a 40 something year old to know how t

by jiggy2011 14y ago

Isn't this partly because SV is most interested in developing social apps for hip teenagers? It's probably difficult for a 40 something year old to know how to design an application for this crowd.

mattdeboard 14y ago
This line of thought doesn't make sense to me, because marketers are in the same business of getting into the heads of the 18-25 demographic and they seem to do pretty well at it despite not being 18-25-year-olds themselves.
- ksaitor 14y ago
  Where did you get the stats that majority of successful marketers are not within 18-25 age range?
  - mattdeboard 14y ago
    Common sense.
waterlesscloud 14y ago
I suspect the most successful companies have user bases with a very significant portion of users in their 30s and 40s. If not an actual majority. EDIT: Some stats here - http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/22/social-media-demographics-stats-2012/ http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/22/social-media-demographics-... Worth noting that on that chart, HN has the second lowest avg age.
eshvk 14y ago
I am not convinced that there is something inherently special with the ways young people consume technology that only other young people have mystical insight towards. There are people in their fifties on HN, tweeting away before twitter was cool and avidly using Pinterest. I think it is more about what you find interesting rather than how old you are. After all, I would think that 80-90% of toys are designed by people who are not between the ages of 3-9. I am fairly certain these toys are profitable.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Well the canonical example would be facebook, designed by a young guy specifically for young people. I'm not sure what the mean age of the early adopters of stuff like pinterest is but I'm guessing under 30.
  - eshvk 14y ago
    Those two statements might be completely valid but don't necessarily disprove my point. :-) I am sure there are old people who suck at this stuff, as are there young people who are great at this. The point here is that you can't sweep people with a broad brush using one parameter. You get to know the people and figure out whether they would be the right people to build your team without going by silly filters like age or sex or whatever.
  - seiji 14y ago
    ...and the purpose of that young guy's site has turned into showing pictures of grandchildren to grandparents. I thought the hivemind determined pint' was one of those middle age middle america housewife demos?
  - randomdata 14y ago
    The vast majority of Pinterest users are over 35 and the average age is 40. Roughly 80% of the users are also female. Given that, I would be surprised if the early adopter of Pinterest was your stereotypical 25 year old male developer that these companies look for.

Isn't this partly because SV is most interested in developing social apps for hip teenagers? It's probably difficult for a 40 something year old to know how to design an application for this crowd.

mattdeboard 14y ago

This line of thought doesn't make sense to me, because marketers are in the same business of getting into the heads of the 18-25 demographic and they seem to do pretty well at it despite not being 18-25-year-olds themselves.

ksaitor 14y ago
Where did you get the stats that majority of successful marketers are not within 18-25 age range?
- mattdeboard 14y ago
  Common sense.

waterlesscloud 14y ago

I suspect the most successful companies have user bases with a very significant portion of users in their 30s and 40s. If not an actual majority. EDIT: Some stats here - http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/22/social-media-demographics-stats-2012/ http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/22/social-media-demographics-... Worth noting that on that chart, HN has the second lowest avg age.

eshvk 14y ago

I am not convinced that there is something inherently special with the ways young people consume technology that only other young people have mystical insight towards. There are people in their fifties on HN, tweeting away before twitter was cool and avidly using Pinterest. I think it is more about what you find interesting rather than how old you are. After all, I would think that 80-90% of toys are designed by people who are not between the ages of 3-9. I am fairly certain these toys are profitable.

jiggy2011 14y ago
Well the canonical example would be facebook, designed by a young guy specifically for young people. I'm not sure what the mean age of the early adopters of stuff like pinterest is but I'm guessing under 30.
- eshvk 14y ago
  Those two statements might be completely valid but don't necessarily disprove my point. :-) I am sure there are old people who suck at this stuff, as are there young people who are great at this. The point here is that you can't sweep people with a broad brush using one parameter. You get to know the people and figure out whether they would be the right people to build your team without going by silly filters like age or sex or whatever.
- seiji 14y ago
  ...and the purpose of that young guy's site has turned into showing pictures of grandchildren to grandparents. I thought the hivemind determined pint' was one of those middle age middle america housewife demos?
- randomdata 14y ago
  The vast majority of Pinterest users are over 35 and the average age is 40. Roughly 80% of the users are also female. Given that, I would be surprised if the early adopter of Pinterest was your stereotypical 25 year old male developer that these companies look for.